Successes and Future Opportunities in Research to Operations toward the advancement of our nation’s resiliency against water hazards and the growing pressures on our critical water resources (Invited Presentation)

The National Water Center (NWC) was officially opened to serve as the nation’s research to operations center of excellence for water resources science and services on May 26, 2015. Born out of a shared vision between Congress and NOAA, the NWC addresses water related challenges (too much, too little, and of poor quality) by advancing nationwide water resources prediction capabilities. Integral to this mission, is the concept of research to operations in hydrology. Through multiple initiatives that include NWC Innovator’s program and associated Summer Institute as well as the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH), the first CI in the National Weather Service and only water-focused CI within NOAA, the NWC has nearly a decade in successful integration of cutting edge science, social science, and technology into the hydrologic prediction services of the National Weather Service. Mr Clark’s comments will document the successes to date as well as describe future opportunities to advance the nation’s resilience against water hazards, and to address the growing pressures on our critical water resources. These include enhanced predictive capabilities such as the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service (HEFS) applied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to support Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, and the Next Generation Water Resources Prediction Capability that applies standards-based methods to increase community engagement in development, testing, and scientific evaluation of different water prediction approaches.